Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1887-03-21
NO CARE FOR MEMS SOULS
TALAIAGE TAKES, n LESSON
FROM THE CHY OF DAVID.

God-6eaycn, Earth ana Hell Inree
COmbstants Who Arc Fighting for
Every Soul.
KANSAS CITY, Mo-, March 20.-The
Rev. It. Dewitt Talmage, ID. D., preached
in the Second Presbyterian church OF this
place this morning. He arrived here yes
terday from st. Louis, and is stopping
over Sunday on his way to Topeka, Kan.
After eXpounding an appropriate chapter
he gave out the hymn beginning:
"Jesus, lover OF my soul
Let me to thy bosom fly."
His subject was "Cheer for the Dis
beartened," and his text, Psalm cxlii., 4:
''No man cared for my SOUL" DR.. Tai
mage said:
David, the rubicund lad. had become the
battle-worn warrior Three thousand armed
men in pursuit of nm, he had hidden in the
cave OF Engedi near the coast OF the Dead
Sea. Utterly tagged out with the pursuit, as
you have often been worn out with the trias
of life, he sat down and cried out: mo man
cared for my soul
II you should fail through q hatchway, or
slip from scaIoding, or drop through a
shyli2ht, there would be hundreds of people
who would come around and pick up your
body and carry it to the home or to the hes
pital. l saw great crowd of people in the
street, ana aesed: "What is the matter I''
and found out that poor laboring man b al
lAllen under sunstroke, and ell our eyes were
filed with tears at the thought OF his dis
tracted wife ana his desolated home. We are
al sympathetic with physical disaster, but
how little sympathy for spiritual woes
There are men in this house who
have come to mid-life who have never vet
been once personally accosted about their
eternal welfare. A great sermon dropped
into an audience of hundreds of thousands
will dD ite work. huf il thia world IL
be brought 10 God IL Will be through little
sermons preached to private Christians, to an
audience Of one. The sisters letter post
marked at the village-the word uttered in
your hearing, half Of smiles and half of tears
the rel giOus postscript To Il business letter
the card left aC the door when you had some
kind OF trouble-the anxious look of some one
across q church aisle while an earnest sermon
was being preached, swung you into the
kingdom OF God But there are hundreds Of
people in this house who Will take the word
that David used in the past tense. and en-
plOy IL IN the present tense. ana cry out: IN o
man cares for my soul" You feel as YOU 90
out day by day in the tug and jostle of life
that 1t Is every man for himself. YOu can en-
dure the pressure of commercial affairs,
and would consider IL almost impairment for
any one to ask you whether you are making
or losing money. But there have been times
when you would have drawn your check for
thousands of dollars il some one would only
help your soul out of its perpiexities. There
are questions about your Aigher destiny that
ache, and distract, and agonize you at times.
Let no one suppose that because you are busy
all day with hardware, or ury goods, or gro
ceries. or grain. that your thoughts are no
longer than your yard-stick, and stop at the
brass-headed nails of the store counter
When you speak once about religious things
wording. You are not world
ling. Of course you are industrious
ami keep busy, but you have had your eyes
opened to the realities of the next world.
v fACNa FrnI NNt .-w,n Nn,. . J.
any one can tell you that a
few years at most will wind mp your
earthly engagements, and that you will take
residence in distant sphere where al your
business adrotness would be q superfuity.
You sometimes think till your head aches
about great religious subjects. You go down
the street with your eyes fixed on the pave
ment, obliviOus of the passing multitudes,
your thoughts gone on eternal expedition.
You wonder If the Bible IS true; how much of
it Is literal and how much is nguratiye; if
Christ be God; II there is anything like retri-
button: If you are immortal; if a resurrection
will ever take place; what the occupation OF
your departed kindred is; what you viii
De ten thousand wears from now. With
cultured placidity of countenance
you are on fire with agitations of
soul. on, this solitary anxiety of your whole
lifetime! You have sold goods to or bought
them from Christian people for ten years and
they have never whlspered one word OF spirit
ual counsel. You have passed up and down
the aisles of churches with men who knew
that you had no hope OF heaven, and talked
about the weather. and about your physical
health. and about everything but that con-
cerning which you most wanted to hear them
speak, namely, your everlasting spirit.
Times without number you have felt in your
heart If you have not uttered it with your
ips: mo man cares for my SOUL"
There have been times when You were espe-
clally plIaDle on the great subject of religion.
1t was SO, for instance. after you had lost
your prouerty. You had great many letters
blowing you up for beng unfortunate. You
showed that there had been confederation
OF circumstances, and that your insolvency
was no fault of yours. Your creditors talked
to you as though they would have hundre d
cents on dollar or your Afe. Protest after
protest tumbled in on your desk. Men who
used to take your hand with both OF theirs
and shake it violently, now pass you on the
street with an almost imperceptible nod.
After six or eight hours OF scaldtng business
anxiety you 80 home, and you shut the door.
anu throw yourself on the sofa. and you feel
in state OF despair. You wish that some
one would come IN and break up the gloom
Everything seems to be against you. The
bank against you. Your creditors against
you. Your friends. suddenly become critical.
against you. All the past aeaiust you. All
the future against you. You make reproach-
full outcry: "No man cares for my SOUL"
There was another occasion when all the
doors OF your heart swung open for sacred in
fuences. A bright light went out III your
househo d. Within three or four DAYS there
You were so lonely that hundred people
coming into the house did not break up the
solttarfness. You were almost killed with
the domestic calamity. few formal, per-
fuuctory words of consolation were uttered
on the stairs before you went to the grave 4;
but YOU wanted some one to come and talk
over the whole matter, ana reclte the alleyia-
tions, and decipher the lessons OF the dark
bereavement. No one came. Many time
you could not sleep until or 3 O'Clock in the
morning, and then your sleep was troubled
dream In which was re-enacted all the scene
of sickness, and parting, aud dissolution. On,
what days and nights they were! No man
seemed 70 care for your soul.
There wKs another occasion when your
heart was very susceptible. There was a
great awakening. There were hundreds OF
ueoDle who pressed into the kingdom OF God /;
s1me Of them acquaintance. some business
Associetes, yes, perhape some members OF
your own family were baptized by sprinkling
or immersion. Christian people thought Of
you and they called at your store, but you
we're out on business. They stopped at your
house; you had gone around to spend the
evening. They sent kindly message TO you {;
somehow by accident you did not get IL. The
lifp-boaC OF the GOSPEL swept through the surf
and everybody seemed TO get in but YOU.
Everything seemed TO escape you. One touch
OF personal sympathy would have pushed you
into the kingdom OF God. When on commu-
nion day your friends went In aud your sons
and daughters went into the church you bur.
led your face in your handkerchief aud
sobbed: "Why am | left outf Everybody
seems to get saved but me. No man cares
for my soul" =.
Hearken TO a revelation have 70 make. II
Is startling statement. IL will 80 surprise
YOU that 1 must prove IL 80 so on. Instead
Of this total indifference all about you, in re-
gard 10 your soul. l have to tell you that